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All but one of my games I’ve worked on with a co-designer!
#1 is that you both need to be motivated by the same goal. If there’s any variance here, that will cause a ton of headaches and possibly stress. My goal is always to design inventive games. So I always am pushing any co-designer to find new ways to do something. In the end, it’s always about making the most fun game which comes about from listening to what your playtesters say. If you have a design partner who really wants a game to be a certain way, but playtesters are saying to do something else, I know I wouldn’t make a good partner with that person. If a designer’s main goal was to make money from designing a game, then I know I wouldn’t make a good partner with that person.
#2 is that you need some permanence to your communication. Email is terrible. Facebook messenger is terrible. Things get lost and forgotten. When Sen and I first started out we started our own private forum! We had a thread for every game idea. That was awesome and kept all our thoughts per game collected in its own area. We don’t use that any more and have transitioned to Google Docs for each game – but I loved the forum when we used it!
#3 settle every dispute through playtesting it. If one of you wants the game to go this way and the other wants it to go that way – then offer to make and test your version to see how it goes. If you and your partner are humble enough to know when it doesn’t work after a playtest – then that’s a good partnership!
